PPC Separations Branch (SEP)

PPC (SEP) News March 2014

DD-214 Block 11, Primary Specialty

A data quality review of DD-214 forms exposed ongoing issues with the content of block 11, Primary Specialty Number, Title and Years and Months in Specialty. The data quality review showed that Competency Codes were mistakenly being entered in the block.

For officers, block 11 will only contain Officer Specialty Code(s), titles and years and months assigned. Although Officer Specialty Codes and Competency Codes are both stored in Direct Access under the Person Profile as "competencies", they are not the same. A Competency Code is not an Officer Specialty Code.

For Officers, the instructions in COMDTINST M1900.4 (series), Para 1-E, are no longer valid because the Officer Experience Indicators were removed from the Register of Officers (COMDTINST M1427.2 (series)) and are no longer available. The Coast Guard transitioned to a new Officer Specialty Management System (OSMS) (See http://www.uscg.mil/psc/opm/Opm3/opm-3OSMS.asp for more information and status updates). The majority of O-4s and above as well as many Direct Commission Officers and CWO-LTs of all paygrades have OSCs assigned. If any OSC is assigned to the officer in DA, enter it (Code and Description) in Block 11. If no OSC is assigned the officer should contact PSC-OPM-3 directly and they will address the initial assignment.

Tips for Direct Access - W4 Information

Within Direct Access, members may change their allowances for federal tax
withholding under Tasks/W-4. Common reasons for members to use this tool is
after marriage or birth of a child. We should counsel members prior to
using this tool, as changes can have significant impacts on their federal tax
withholdings. Changes should not be considered lightly, and members should
seek guidance before making changes.

If not used correctly, this can
result in too little taxes held from their pay and end up owing federal tax.
This situation most often occurs when members select two allowances
(themselves and spouse) and both work. The withholding amount is
calculated based on expected pay, number of dependents, the tax withholding
requirements from the IRS and your state of legal residence, and changed
automatically such as when serving in a Combat Zone Tax Exemption area.

You can adjust your tax withholdings based on that information to make sure
enough is withheld each year, or to make sure the Service is not withholding
too much. Online, the IRS has a site to assist with calculating
tax withholdings. Link:
http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/IRS-Withholding-Calculator.

PPC (SEP) News September 2013

New Name

The Separations, Entitlements and Service Validation (SES) Branch is now the Separations (SEP) Branch. Service validation functions now fall under the Advancements (ADV) Branch. For service validation links, please see the ADV website here: http://www.uscg.mil/ppc/adv.asp.

Accounting for leave upon Separation

PPC Separations Branch must account for all leave upon separation. In order to accomplish this, the leave disposition needs to be entered into the correct fields within Direct Access. For all separation cases, leave disposition must be entered on the Statement of Intent (SOI) under the "SOI Leave" tab. Regular leave sale shall be entered in the "Days of Regular Leave to Sell" tab. Do not enter regular leave to sell in the "saved leave" block. Enter the dates of terminal leave in the "Leave Requests" section of the SOI. Do not enter leave periods taken before terminal leave in this section. Leave taken before terminal leave must be entered as a regular vacation request in Direct Access.

It is important to take in to account all leave accrual through the date of separation. The leave accrual chart may be found in the Military Assignments and Authorized Absences Manual, Chapter 2.A.19.b. All leave not posted to JUMPS needs to be taken into account as well.

When computing terminal leave, ensure the member has no more than 75 days leave on October 1st or leave will be lost, causing the member to go in an overpayment status upon separation. This is especially important for members retiring and utilizing permissive temporary duty and/or processing point. The member must start utilizing leave days early enough to ensure they have no more than 75 days on October 1st.

SPOs must ensure the SOI is submitted and approved no later than 45 days prior to the departure from the unit. SPOs should also verify the SOI was posted to JUMPS by viewing SEG 75.

Stopping Entitlements

When completing the process of separating a member from the service, it is important to consider the entitlements which are lost while a member is on terminal leave. As per the SPO Manual Chapter 3, II-9-B-11, a member departing an OCONUS duty station will be eligible to receive OCONUS Cost of Living Allowance through the day prior to the first day of leave. For example, if a member begins terminal leave to an INCONUS location on 6 July 2013 the entitlement will be stopped on 5 July 2013 in Direct Access. One exception for this rule is if a member receiving OCONUS COLA takes leave outside the continental United States. A member who remains outside of the continental United States will remain eligible to receive a COLA entitlement. These rules apply for OCONUS COLA with and without dependents.

For vessel units which qualify for Career Sea Pay and Career Sea Pay Premium, stop transactions must be done as well. Per Pay Manual Chapter 4, Section B, Figure 4-3, Rule 12, a member is no longer entitled to Career Sea Pay (CSP) or Career Sea Pay Premium (CPS Prem) once departing the vessel on terminal leave. For example, if a member leaves his or her CSP qualifying vessel and begins leave on 10 July 2013 the Direct Access stop date should be 09 July 2013.

The stop transactions may be future dated in Direct Access and could be done along with separation counseling. If these entitlements are not stopped, the member will see a reduction of his or her final pay. This may delay payment to the member as well. These transactions must be entered and approved in Direct Access no later than one full pay cycle before the member's departure from the unit.

Reductions and Forfeitures

Ensuring that Reductions and Forfeitures are entered into Direct Access in a timely manner has a large impact on successful separations of Coast Guard members. Once punitive action has been taken via court martial or non-judicial punishment, it is imperative that this information is entered into the Disciplinary Action Tab in Direct Access. These transactions must be entered and approved in Direct Access no later than one full pay cycle before the member's departure from the unit. Failure to complete these transactions into Direct Access may result in negative final pay, creating an out of service debt for the member.

SPO Quick Check List for Separations

When processing any type of Separation use the below checklist to ensure member's pay and entitlements are correctly accounted for in their final active duty payment. Failure to submit and approve documents by the compute cycle prior to separation date will cause delays and/or reductions in final payments to members.

1. Submit and Approve a Statement of Intent through Direct Access within 45 days of member's separation date. Include leave sale and terminal leave dates if requested.

Verifying accumulated leave on separating members.

When calculating a member's leave balance through their separation date check the below areas in Direct Access and JUMPS:

Segment 62 in JUMPS - shows monthly leave balance and any leave taken during that month.

Segment 74 in JUMPS - Shows actual leave dates that have been processed or that are input and waiting for a compute cycle.

Use the below chart to calculate leave accrual through the date of separation:

Computing Leave from Beginning of Month to Separation Date.

This table shows the leave earned from beginning of month to date of separation.

Day of the of Month of Separation

Leave Earned

l-6

0.5 days

7-l2

l.0 days

l3-l8

l.5 days

l9-24

2.0 days

25-3l

2.5 days

Reminder: The SOI must be approved in order for PPC calculate initial separation payments.

2. Submit and approve the Separation Action when member's terminal leave begins or prior to the last compute before the member's separation date.

The separation action must include leave sale. PPC cannot pay leave sale if it is not included in the separation transaction. If leave sale is not
initially included, a correction to the separation action must be completed. PPC will only release pay and allowances owed member on date of separation and will
wait until correction is submitted to process leave sale.

3. Last minute changes to separations:

When last minute changes to separations occur, if possible submit a new Separation SOI thru DA that includes the new information. Only do this if there is a compute prior to the separation date. If there is no compute, send an email SOI to PPC- PF-SES with new information and adjust the Separation Action accordingly.

Communication is the key to processing timely and accurate separations. Any questions can be sent to via email PPC-SES.

Administrative procedures now requires a Ready Reserve service agreement and a statement of understanding that confirms the recipient's understanding of Separation Pay policy, recoupment from Retired Pay, and recoupment tax impact on Retired Pay. Per CG Pay Manual COMDTINST M7220.29(series), PPC (ses) shall only disburse Separation Pay when in receipt of the Ready Reserve service agreement and statement of understanding.

CG-3307 (SEP-21-Acknowledgement of Separation Pay and Recoupment from Retired Pay) has been formatted to incorporate both of the above requirements. Please review CG Pay Manual, Chapter 10, prior to processing separation actions that include separation pay. To ensure members are paid Separation Pay in a timely manner, SPO's should scan and email the signed CG-3307 (SEP-21) to PPC-PF-SES@uscg.mil prior to completing/approving the separation action in Direct Access. PPC-SES will include the signed CG-3307 (SEP-21) in the member's separation case. Failure to obtain and forward the signed CG-3307 (SEP-21) will require PPC (ses) to withhold Separation Pay Payments and direct members to contact their servicing SPO for help.

Importance of Timely and Accurately Processing of Disciplinary Transactions

Recently, we have came across a couple of large overpayments that involved the untimely submission of disciplinary actions. It is important to remember that leave accrual ceases while a member is in confinement or HADA status. Also, if a member is sentenced to confinement for more than 6 months, or sentenced to a punitive discharge along with confinement of any duration, the member is subject to automatic forfeiture of pay and allowances. It is extremely important that disciplinary and confinement transactions are entered in a timely and accurate manner. This will help ensure that members' accounts are adjusted correctly and avoid large overpayments on behalf of the government.

In one case, as a result of a Special Courts-Martial, the member was reduced to pay grade E-1 and confinement. Although a disciplinary transaction was completed IAW Part III Chap 5 of the SPO Procedures Manual, no confinement transaction was input per Part III Chap 6. The member was confined for a period of 61 days and due to the confinement not being recorded, the member's EOE was not properly adjusted. Also, the member continued to receive full pay and allowances and accrued leave while confined. The disciplinary transaction was corrected, after PPC notified the SPO, which created a debt of over $14,396.90 for previously paid pay and allowances and excess leave that the member never earned.

In another case, as a result of a General Courts-Martial, the member was sentenced to a fine and dismissal. The SPO contacted PPC 2 months after the General Courts-Martial to inquire why the member was still receiving pay and allowances even though the member was in HADA status. After reviewing the member's record, it was found that PPC was never notified of the member going into HADA status and therefore the transaction was not completed. PPC also found that the disciplinary transaction had not yet been entered by the SPO. Because of the untimely submission, the member received two months pay & allowances that was not earned creating $18,549.60 debt to the government.

In both instances debts to the government were established that could and should have been avoided with a little more diligence and attention to detail. The Coast Guard is also required to report these types of overpayments to DHS as high dollar overpayments. These reports are published on the web for the public as part of "Executive Order 13520: Reducing Improper Payments and Eliminating Waste in Federal Programs" to eliminate payment error and waste in federal programs and increase the transparency and public scrutiny of significant improper payments.

Fortunately for the Coast Guard, these types of disciplinary issues are few. When you do have these situations come up, contact PPC immediately for assistance if you are unsure of what actions you should take.